Roundup

Targeting the Marginalized for Political Gain is Nothing New in Texas Politics

by Nancy Beck Young

Minority groups have often had a perilous existence in Texas, but that hasn't stopped politicians from attacking them as dire threats to the state's moral fabric. 

History's Guidance to the January 6 Committee

by Stephen A. West

The 1872 report of the Congressional Ku Klux Klan Committee offers lessons for the January 6 Commission: expect partisans to weaponize the report, and don't trust "the judgment of history" to clear up doubts about culpability. 

An Attack on Voting Rights is an Attack on the Legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer

by Keisha N. Blain

No one who learns the life story of Fannie Lou Hamer and the sacrifices she made for the right to vote can accept the current attacks on the Voting Rights Act. 

Kyiv Has Faced Adversity Before, and Emerged with Stronger Ukrainian Identity

by Matthew Pauly

Ukrainian nationalists were ultimately unable to defy Bolshevik control, but their movement established a more powerful national political identity. 

Sampling the Epic in Kendrick Lamar's "Mortal Man"

by Justine McConnell

Remembering the essential orality of classical epics can help to understand them as works that have been sampled and remixed, and to place contemporary popular culture in dialogue with that tradition. 

National History Unites a Community

by Mary Manning

"According to the National History Day office, more than half a million students in grades 6–12 now present their research in exhibits, papers, performances, digital documentaries, and websites annually."

“Not being a man, I wanted to do the next best thing”: Female Gentlemen and the First World War

by Anna Elisabeth Gehl

Volunteering as nurses at the front of the Great War was occasion for many privileged British women to craft a new gendered identity incorporating the virtues of duty and self-control previously associated with "gentlemanliness." 

St. Patrick's Story Should Make Us Consider How Ireland Treats Refugees

by Elizabeth Boyle

Both the legacy of St. Patrick and attention to a new wave of Ukrainian refugees should make the Republic of Ireland reconsider how it welcomes refugees from around the world. 

Why Do Leaders Start Wars Assuming Victory?

by Gregory A. Daddis

For millenia, leaders have been seduced by the promise that war unifies fractious politics, elevates leaders, and offers a final solution to conflict, despite the historical wrongness of these lessons. 

Why Does St. Brigid Get So Much Less Attention than Patrick?

by Lisa Bitel

"This year on March 17, when you’re wearing the green and singing “Dirty Ol’ Town,” take a moment to whisper thanks to St. Brigid, the compassionate, sensible, native-born patron saint of Ireland, and ask if Ireland’s premier patron saint should be a woman."

Putin's Anti-Gay War on Ukraine

by Emil Edenborg

The Kremlin's political campaign of traditionalism has made homophobia into politics, and nationalism has made homophobia into geopolitics. 

Don't Use Anti-Asian Violence to Throw More Money at Police

by Crystal Jing Luo

Business interests in Oakland have hijacked the safety concerns of Asian Americans to support arming police in service of real estate development that threatens low-income housing. 

Putin: Can' Win, Can't Afford to Lose

by Max Boot

As long as residents of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities have access to food and weaponry continues to come into the country, it's unlikely that Russia can prevail in an occupation. But Putin may not be politically able to avoid trying anyway. 

Holocaust Echoes in Ukraine Conspiracy Theories

by Rafael Medoff

Some reactions to the news coverage of horrors visited on civilians echo excuses and minimization of Nazi violence against Jews, including claims that the stories are part of a campaign of emotional manipulation. 

Russia's Invasion is Targeting Ukraine's History Too

by Alexandra Sukalo

The destruction of historical archives in Ukraine is part and parcel of a long tradition of attempted cultural eradication in service of empire. 

The Winter War Ghost Haunts Putin's War Today

by David P. Barash

Stalin's ill-conceived invasion of Finland gave Russia a small part of Finnish territory as a ransom for a face-saving end to stalemate and gave the world the term "Molotov Cocktail" – a sarcastic rebuke to the USSR's claims to be dropping food relief instead of bombs.

East Berlin Stories: Gay Espionage in Cold War Berlin

by Samuel Huneke

The East German Stasi recruited gay Beriners as informants both because they believed they posed a security threat and because the secret police had difficulty penetrating the secrecy of gay social networks in the city. 

Biden's Push for Infrastructure Can't Leave Black Communities Behind

by N.D.B. Connolly

When infrastructure programs drive growth politics, entrenched interests in banking, real estate and planning can profit from preserving and expanding racial inequality. 

Teaching Asian American History is Needed to Understand Complexity of Racism

by Kathryn Gin Lum

Asian American history shows members of Asian ethnic groups have been ranked in a hierarchy of races at some moments, and grouped together with other "heathen" groups as disqualified for inclusion in American society. Understanding this history helps to understand racism as a political order, not a response to innate difference. 

We're Talking about Climate Change with Outdated Colonial Language

by Priya Satia

The dominant climate activist theme of sacrificing in the present to protect the future is rooted in the intellectual history of economics which has driven the profligate consumption and gross inequality that threatens the planet.